Demolition in the desert: Israel destroys Bedouin village for 54th time

Bedouin women from al-Turi family sit next to their destroyed homes in the village of al-Akarib in the Negev Desert (AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana) / AFP

Israeli authorities destroyed the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib for the 54th time in the last three years on Thursday, as the country struggles to relocate Bedouins in the Negev desert to specially built towns.

Another resident, Maher Abu Qreinat, said that homes and other
structures were pulled down in the Negev village of Abu Qreinat
on the same day.

The Israeli government approved the Prawer-Begin Bill in January,
calling for the relocation 30,000-40,000 Bedouins and the
demolition of about 40 villages which the Jewish state considers
to be illegal.

The bill was approved by the country’s parliament, the Knesset,
during its first reading in June. Two additional votes are
expected to take place.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said that
the move would “put an end to the spread of illegal building
by Negev Bedouin and lead to the better integration of the
Bedouin into Israeli society.”

The Bedouins refuse to be relocated, saying they purchased their
land in the Negev desert before the establishment of the state of
Israel. However, they say the agreements were verbal ones – and
there is no way to prove their ownership of the territory.

Amnesty International called on Israel to stop “demolitions of
Arab Bedouin homes” after Israeli forces performed a previous
raid on Al-Araqib in July.

"The Israeli government's Prawer-Begin plan would lead to the
forced eviction of tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens of
Israel,” Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International's
Middle East and North Africa Program, said. “The plan is
inherently discriminatory, flies in the face of Israel's
international obligations and cannot be accepted in any
circumstances."

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also slammed
the bill in July, urging Israel to reconsider its plans to
relocate the Bedouin to officially recognized towns such as
Rahat, Khura, and Ksayfe.

"If this bill becomes law, it will accelerate the demolition
of entire Bedouin communities, forcing them to give up their
homes, denying them their rights to land ownership, and
decimating their traditional cultural and social life in the name
of development," he said.

There are around 210,000 Bedouins in Israel, most of whom live in
and around the Negev desert in the southern part of the country.
More than half of them reside in unrecognized villages which lack
basic infrastructure. Many Bedouins also live in extreme poverty.

The Israeli government said it would grant legal status “as
much as possible” to the currently unrecognized Negev
villages if they meet minimum population criteria – but those
requirements were never revealed.